Nantucket Landfill: New Rules!

The director of the Department of Public Works recently announced new rules for the landfill.  The goal is to have folks recycle everything they can AND divert ALL Non-compostable waste from their compostable stream to the Non Recyclable-Non Compostable (NR-NC) stream (which is sent off-island).  Effectively nothing would be put into our landfill.

It is helpful to think of the system as three main streams.

  1. Recyclable Waste (everything recyclable) (Shipping Boxes, Plastics, Tin/Aluminum, Glass)  These are now positioned altogether.

2. Compostable Waste (ONLY items that compost) food waste, pizza and cereal boxes, tissues, paper products, magazines, newspapers, cooking grease, etc.

3. NR-NC (Non-Recyclable/Non-Compostable Waste) EVERYTHING ELSE!  film plastics, styrofoam, diapers, plastic bags, bones, woven wipes, etc.

They are actively transitioning now and encourage feedback from the users.  They are still in discussions with the waste haulers to develop/adapt systems for their residential and commercial customers.  There is a chart below which we would recommend printing out.

HANDY CHART for RECYCLING and COMPOSTING

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